NP Roth essay re his new novel

[Dave Monroe]

However ...

--- Richard Romeo <r.romeo at atlanticphilanthropies.org>
wrote:
> 
> One of the other things that struck me about Roth's
> essay was that he distances himself in his novel
> from explicitly alluding to today's events through
> the eyes of the 40s ...

Whatever Roth believes, whatever he wants anyone to
believe, I still say, texts cannot avoid being read in
light of their (or their readers') contexts, no matter
how any particular reader manages and/or struggles to
do so.  Currently reading Frank Kermode, The Age of
Shakespeare (NY: Modern Library, 2004) ...

"The first task of one who sets out to write briefly
on Shakespeare and his age must be to move the focus
back from the life of the playhouse and say something
about the greater world of national politics.  One
dominant concern in the world throughout the Tudor
period was the precariousness of the royal succession.
 If this now seems a relatively remote and unimportant
matter, it is worth recalling that Shakespeare's
history plays, a good quarter of his entire output,
dealt with anxieties, indeed with civil wars, about
succession ...." (p. 11)

Also, Harold Bloom, A Map of Misreading (NY: Oxford
UP, 1975).  On "the anxiety of influence" ...

"I take the resitance shown to the theory by many
poets, in particular, to be likely evidence for its
validity ...." (p.10)

Hm ...

> Pynchon's historical works for the most part (GR,
> M&D) are always commenting on today.

Their contemporary "today," though any lasting appeal
they continue hold will likely be dependent on their
continuing ablity to comment on readers' "todays" ...
 
> But Roth does mention Bush and cronies at the end
> of the essay ...

Which of course complicates his earlier disavowal ...


		
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